The retrenchments will fall in the German company’s power-and-gas division and the process industries-and-drives unit, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the plans haven’t been announced. There could be thousands of positions cut in the power and gas business, which makes turbines, while redundancies in process industries will be substantial, one person said. The shares were 0.5 percent lower as of 3:16 p.m. in Frankfurt.

The announcement, which will probably come in early November, could be the largest reorganization since Chief Executive Officer Joe Kaeser initiated 4,500 job cuts in May 2015. Since Kaeser was appointed CEO in 2013, over 15,000 retrenchments have been announced.

Power and gas, Siemens’ largest division, has about 48,700 employees and accounts for 20 percent of revenue. The business, once one of the company’s biggest drivers for earnings on big contracts like a power plant in Egypt, has slumped recently due to a lack of major follow-up orders. Process industries and drives, which accounted for just over 10 percent of sales, also supplies other company units.

Siemens is “continually thinking about the right strategic setup for our businesses,” spokesman Philipp Encz said in an emailed statement Thursday. “This may include consolidating individual activities if market conditions make this necessary.”